1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a transfer medium separator device for automatically and positively separating a transfer medium from the surface of a photosensitive medium in an electrophotographic copying machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the copying machines of the type which require image transfer, it has generally been the practice that an image corresponding to the original image of an object to be copied is formed and developed on the surface of a photosensitive medium, whereafter an ordinary transfer medium is brought into intimate contact with the surface of the photosensitive medium and concurrently therewith, corona discharge is applied from the back side of the transfer medium to electrostatically transfer the image from the photosensitive medium to the transfer medium. When this occurs, the transfer medium is kept in intimate contact with the surface of the photosensitive medium with the aid of the electrostatic attraction, and this makes it difficult for the transfer medium to be thereafter separated from the surface of the photosenitive medium. Conventional methods of separating such transfer medium include a blast of compressed air blown between the surface of the photosensitive medium and the transfer medium to accomplish the separation or a stripping pawl disposed adjacent the surface of the photosensitive medium.
However, the separating method employing the compressed air lacks in reiability and often effects erroneous separation, which in turn has led to wastage of transfer mediums. The method utilizing the separator pawl often fails to effect complete separation, depending on the precision of the relative position between the stripping pawl and the surface of the photosensitive medium.